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US markets closed higher in the green (SPY +0.3%), even after a disappointing report from the ISM being much more negative than expected. WTI crude prices have recovered from the sessions low point to the high 44 handle, the US dollar has fallen to the high 94's again and gold is trending higher.

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Judging by the volume of online chatter, there's a lot less buzz in China ahead of this week's expected launch of the new Apple Inc iPhone, and people on the street say they're more likely to "wait and see" what the latest device offers than rush out to buy.

(Reuters) - Canada's Enbridge Inc said on Tuesday it would buy Spectra Energy Corp of Houston in an all-stock deal valued at about $28 billion (C$37 billion) to create the largest North American energy infrastructure company.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two Federal Reserve policymakers plan to warn U.S. lawmakers against changing the Fed's structure to reduce the role of private bankers at the U.S. central bank, according to statements seen by Reuters.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. services sector activity slowed to a 6-1/2-year low in August amid sharp drops in production and orders, pointing to slowing economic growth that further diminished prospects for an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve this month.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global benchmark Brent crude fell almost 1 percent on Tuesday as hopes waned for an agreement between two of the biggest oil producers to freeze output to tackle a global supply glut.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen has agreed an engine technology and purchasing alliance with truckmaker Navistar and will buy a 16.6 percent stake in the U.S. firm for $256 million, as global truck makers face steep development costs to meet global anti-pollution rules.

With questions about Hillary's health permeating much of the fringe media over the past month, if mostly absent from the mainstream coverage, yesterday's not one but two dramatic coughing fits by Hillary, promptly blamed on Cleveland's pollen levels (we showed earlier that Cleveland pollen was actually moderate, and is absent from the inside of a hermetically sealed airplane), led to another frenzy of inquiries: what exactly is wrong with her?

It also led to a furious response by the Clinton campaign at an unwitting recipient: NBC News, which "dared" to cover the story (even if, as we first reported, MSNBC ultimately cut its live feed of Clinton's Cleveland coughing fit).

As The Hill first wrote, NBC News is "facing harsh criticism" from Hillary Clinton's campaign and her supporters for publishing one article on the Democratic presidential nominee's coughing fit. Lest there be any confusion, the 91-word report, had virtually no commentary aside from reporting the facts, which included her quote that she is "allergic to Donald Trump." This is all that it said:

Hillary Clinton struggled to fight back a coughing fit while campaigning in Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday.

"I've been talking so much," Clinton said with a hoarse voice. "Every time I think about Trump, I get allergic."

We see from time to time articles from investment groups talking about how they believe that the US Dollar will be strong for the next 18 months blah blah blah. It's always positive to hear investment managers learning about FX. Unfortunately, as we explain in Splitting Pennies - FX isn't like other markets. Investing in Currencies is an outright gamble. Let's elaborate on this point, the difference between TRADING and INVESTING.

When someone says that the US Dollar will be 'up' in the next 6 months - how do they know there won't be a black swan event, such as an act of terror, a surprise interest rate increase, a coup, or any number of other events that can shake markets?

The proof, or at least a strong argument - Goldman Sachs has lost billions for clients in FX, see this recent example:

Goldman's Robin Brooks has to be a sadist: that is the only way we can explain his ability to crush the greatest number of Goldman clients at every possible opportunity.

Well, if Goldman can't do it - you really think you are smarter than Goldman Sachs? And remember that Forex is a Monopoly, in which Goldman Sachs is a controller. They lose money in a market they 'control.'

Why would an FX outfit warn investors not to invest in Currencies? Because we believe based on statistical evidence that the markets are random. Or to be more static - even if they aren't random, if a strategy can work on random numbe ...

Today was another historic day in the monetary twilight zone that is Europe, when two large European, non-financial companies were the first in history to be paid by investors to borrow, courtesy of the ECB's corporate debt monetization program, which has unleashed an unprecedented scramble for frontrunning the central bank's purchases of corporate debt and a historic collapse in bond spreads.

As the WSJ reported earlier, German multinational Henkel AG and French drugmaker Sanofi SA are set to pay, pardon collect, a yield of minus 0.05% on new issues of short-dated bonds on Tuesday. The German household products is set to sell 500 million of two-year bonds that yield negative 0.05 percent, while Sanofi will be paid to issue three-year debt.

As the WSJ conveniently adds, in case someone was still unaware, "the fund raising is another sign of how unprecedented monetary policy has turned conventional investment theory on its head."

Roughly 717 billion of eurozone investment-grade bonds traded at a negative yield as of the end of August, or over 30% of the entire market. The ECB had bought over 20 billion of corporate bonds as of Sep. 2, after launching its program in early June, with most of its purchases coming in secondary markets. The result is shown in the charts below:

In a note by Bank of America's Barnaby Martin yesterday, the strategist said he was starting to "think the unthinkable", namely what happens when double- ...

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